Happy Ever After
by Qzil
Summary: The princess always gets a happy ending. The witch always falls to ruin. That’s just the way it works.


I actually like this one a little bit, even though it's Neopets, it's still a nice tale. Have fun reading.

~Summer Snowstorm.

_--_

_The princess always gets a happy ending. The witch always falls to ruin._

--

"Why is it that witches always capture princesses to lock in a tower?"

"I don't know. What do you think?"

"I think that the witch is jealous of the princess. For her beauty and because she has a family, suitors, and is almost always happy."

"If that's true, than why would she kidnap me? I'm not a princess! I'm a witch like her!"

"Because, Mary, I think she's jealous of you, too."

"Why, pray tell, do you think that?"

"Because you're a good witch, Mary. You're like a princess but with magick powers. You're a good witch."

"Such a thing doesn't exist."

"Really? Does that mean you're not real?"

--

Mary had spent almost her entire life locked in a large, poorly-made tower of stone. For the first year there, she had been completely alone. Twice a day, the witch that captured her would make food appear in the tower room she lived in. To fill the long hours, Mary would often read the potion and spellbooks scattered throughout the room. Four long years past in that room, and when she was ten, the witch brought her a companion.

Across from her tower was another one, shiny and new. Inside, the witch placed a princess the same age as Mary. She was a royal Aisha, while Mary was a simple red Xweetok. Since they were close enough to talk to each other, the girls became fast friends. Mary, however, wondered why there were thorns surrounding the princess's tower while hers was smooth with only a small hook sticking out by the window. The girl's didn't wonder about it too much, though, since they figured it was all part of the prince-saves-princess thing. The girls read all sorts of stories about brave knights battling the evil witch or dragon to save the princess. In each one, the witch met a miserable end. In every single fairy tale, the witch would fall to ruin. By the time she turned eleven, Mary stopped reading those books. She, after all, was a witch. Why else would the witch give her spellbooks and not give any to the princess?

--

"Mary, when do you think a prince will come rescue us?"

"When we get a little older."

"How much older?"

"We'll be sixteen in five more years. That's not that long to wait. Maybe even when we're fifteen."

"...That's too long, Mary."

"Well, you'll just have to wait."

"I wish we could escape by ourselves. Why does a prince have to rescue us?"

"We got a very un-feminist witch?"

"I'm being serious, Mary. Why can't you and I just run away?"

"Because the prince saves the princess. That's just how it works. The witch doesn't save her."

"The witch always seems to come out unhappy, huh?"

"Mm."

"I hope that doesn't happen to you."

"...Yeah."

--

The seasons flew by and the girls got older. Mary went deeper into her spells and potions. A cauldron appeared in her room one day. As she was fiddling with a spell one day, a voice called up to her from the bottom of the tower. Slowly, Mary went to her window and looked down, eyes widening at what she saw.

"Aye, fair princess! Won't you come down to me?"

Mary whirled away from the window as soon as she saw the Korbat standing on the ground below. Her heart pounded. She was fourteen now, almost fifteen. She was almost old enough to marry.

And here was her chance to get out of this tower.

Slowly Mary went to the window, eyes glowing. "Fair prince, is it you who calls for me?"

"Aye, princess! It is I who calls!"

She freezes.

He called her a princess.

The word echoed through her mind as her smile melted from her face and her eyes went wide.

He wants a princess.

She's not a princess.

Slowly Mary smiled sadly. "I'm not what you want, fair prince. I'm nothing but a witch. There is another princess in a tower just across the way. She is the one you seek."

The prince just shrugged, the way they often do, and turned around. He looked at the thorns, sighed, and continued on his way. Mary watched from her tower until he became a speck on the horizon before sinking to her knees and weeping.

--

"Why didn't you go with him? That's the third one that's asked you!"

"I can't go with them."

"Why not, Mary?"

"Because I'm not a princess. I'm not what they want."

"That doesn't matter to them, Mary. You look just like a princess, you're trapped in a tower like a princess, and you're kind like a princess."

"Even so, who would look after you?"

"I'd be fine on my own."

"Princesses don't lie."

--

"Mary, when the next one asks you to go with him you're gonna go."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are. You're getting out of this God-forsaken forest."

"I can't leave you alone."

"I can't leave you alone, either."

"So we're going to be here until we die, huh?"

"Looks like it. Unless you leave with a prince when he comes to get you."

"That'll never happen."

"One day there'll be a prince who loves you enough to brave those vines encasing your tower."

"...Maybe."

--

Years fly by, and a prince finally braves the thorn and vine-encased tower. Mary watches as he climbs, smile getting bigger the closer he gets to the top of the tower. Her friend's smile is wide and happy as her prince comes closer and closer. Her eyes shine and her golden locks seem to sparkle. She reaches out a hand to touch his. He's so close now she can almost touch his hand and she can count the freckles on his blue Aisha skin. Closer...closer...closer.

He slips and plunges back to the ground.

She screams and leans as far out the window as she can, hand still outstretched. She misses his fingers by a hair and watches as he falls. Vines tear and whip at his pretty hair as black chunks become entangled in the vines. Blood showers down as the knife-sharp thorns cut his skin and tear off pieces of his clothing. He twists the wrong way, shooting a thorn into his eye. He screams and tries to twist away, but there are thorns digging into his wrists, holding him up, gutting the veins from the soft flesh. The princess screams as he dies slowly, then finally falls to the ground like a limp puppet. His steed gives a cry and runs off, crushing his head with the misstep of a hoof.

The princess is sobbing and shaking now. Tears fall from her eyes through the thorns and vines, raining down on them like the prince's blood. She wails through the night as rain pours down and the earth swallows his body like it's alive.

Mary closes her eyes in grim acceptance at the horrific death. Her friend's tower is like a rose. Beautiful but deadly. Pretty enough for fools to try to touch the rose and not be careful of the thorns ready to defend their rose. Their prize.

Mary stared at the prince's hand as it was swallowed by the earth.

He hadn't been careful enough.

He was a fool.

--

"He failed, Mary. A prince never fails in the storybooks."

"We're not in a storybook."

"It feels like it sometimes."

"Sh. It'll be okay. Another one will come."

"What if we aren't enchanted princesses? What if we're cursed?"

"I'm not any type of princess. Besides, it wasn't because of an enchantment or curse, it was because he didn't watch his footing."

"Negative much?"

"A lot."

"What happened to you, Mary? Why are you like this all of the sudden?"

"Because your last prince was a fool. Hopefully the next one will make it."

"Hopefully."

--

So they waited and waited, and in the end, no one came. More years flew by, with nary a soul passing through their wood.

Until another boy came.

He was a young Xweetok. Without hesitation, he walked over to the princess's tower and called up to her, "Fair princess that lays trapped in a tower, may I have the privilege of saving you?" Mary watched as her friend ran to the window and smiled, face alight with hope.

"You may, fair prince."

So he began to climb slowly, taking his time the whole way up. Her eyes shone with hope as he went up and up and up. Finally, he sat on the windowsill.

"My fair lady, come with me and be my queen?" he asked, just like good princes are supposed to. She smiled and nodded, stepping daintily out the window as he wrapped an arm about her waist as he helped her onto his back. Mary watched as they climbed down and finally mounted his steed. This one was careful. This one was not fool. She smiled and waved goodbye to her friend, who didn't even look at her.

"Goodbye!" Mary called, leaning out her window. The prince looked back.

"Who's that?" he ask his princess. She shrugged, too wrapped up in her own happiness to care about her friend.

"No one but a witch."

--

Mary fell to the floor in her tower, shoulders shaking as tears soaked her blue dress.

Blue, the color of sorrow, the color used to keep witches at bay, the color water, and in turn, tears.

Her friend had left her without a word. The only living soul she had known since age ten had left her. Without a word, without a second thought.

Without even a glance.

Hands gripped the material around her chest as if she was trying to grab and squeeze her own heart. She felt betrayal and loneliness wrapping itself around her like the knife-sharp thorn that had killed that one prince.

Inside, she thought she felt them killing her, too.

Yet, she had always known this was coming. She is a witch.

Witches don't deserve to be happy.

--

Years pass, and the witch withdraws further into herself. She never speaks, for she sees no reason too. Princes stopped passing this way long ago. She is twenty now, and all hope of her ever leaving the tower is dead.

She has twisted into a horrible mutant; her once-beautiful mane is now ragged and discolored to match her flesh. Her ragged dress hangs off her too-thin form.

And yet, she pauses as a voice drifts up the window. Setting down her book she walks over to the window and lightly sets her fingers with their cracked and yellowed nails on the frame. She looks down and sees a beautiful Aisha boy staring up at her. He is yellow with thick black hair, and best of all, he's dressed like a prince. He smiles up at her.

"Fair lady, may I come up to your tower?"

Lady. Not princess. Lady.

"No."

Her voice is flat and rusty from lack of use.

"Please, fair lady? I have searched far and wide for a bride as beautiful as thee. Now that I have found you, I must know your name. Will you grant me that privilege?"

Mary snarled and narrowed her eyes, wondering if there was something wrong with her. She was a mutant, not a beautiful and fair lady.

"Please lady?"

"It's Mary, if you must know."

"Will you come away with me, princess? Will you come and be my bride?"

He's talking just like a good prince should to a captive princess.

Except she's not a captive princess.

She's a witch.

"I'm not a princess, sir. I'm a witch. You shall find a princess in another part of this enchanted wood. She is even more beautiful than I."

She hopes that he will leave like a good little prince to find a princess. After all, princes saved princesses, not witches.

But he doesn't move on. She watches as he expertly slings a rope over the hook by her window and scales her tower.

Nothing stirs inside her. No hope. No passion. No want.

Those things died long ago.

He reaches her window and hangs onto the rope for dear life. A fall from this height could kill him.

"Please come away with me? I don't care if you're a witch. You don't seem like one. You seem like a good witch. Like a witch who's also a princess."

She smiles. Such kind words.

"I can't go with you. It's kind of you to ask, but I can't. Leave, fair prince. Find your princess."

"No."

"Leave."

She picks a knife up off the floor.

"At least tell me why you won't come with me! I could give you a happy-ever-after."

She sighs and leans out the window, making sure the knife is concealed.

"Because I'm a witch..."

She places the knife against the rope. His eyes widen as she looks at him.

She cuts and watches as he falls to the ground. Face blank has he screams. Face blanker still as he falls on his head and the sick sound of a bone breaking echos through the wood. She turns back to her tower and opens a book. A fairy tale. One about a princess being saved by a prince while a witch in another tower masqueraded as a princess and lured princes away from her.

"...And witches don't get happy-ever-afters."

--

_That's just the way it works. _


End file.
